Rare foul flower spreads stench in Orange County

COSTA MESA, Calif. (AP) — The stench of blue cheese and dead bodies at a Southern California college is not repelling visitors but drawing them in.

A huge, rare and famously putrid Indonesian flower is blooming this weekend, spreading its stench across Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa.

The school said in a statement that the stench of the so-called corpse flower has been compared to rotting flesh, and the greenhouse where it's unfurling its blossom is open to members of the public who want to take a whiff.

The flower uses flies instead of bees to spread its sticky pollen. It produces two sulfurous chemicals within its leaves that the flies find attractive.